Like any developing economy looking to make it big, India has developed a mental lacuna on the issue of copyright. There isn't a Hindi word for "rip-off", which is why Indians faces go blank at the World Trade Organisation when other countries get hissy at them for breaking international patents on everything from pharmaceuticals through to fashion and software and then selling their own versions for a millionth of the original price. Asking Indians to respect intellectual property rights is like asking them to keep the noise down at Diwali – they will never do it. That attitude seeps out of every frame of the new Bollywood kid-flick, Hari Puttar: A Comedy Of Terrors.

Warner Bros took the film's producers to court on the eve of its release, claiming the title was too similar to their own Harry Potter franchise, only to go on to lose the case. But Hari hasn't just borrowed the title from Harry, he's mimicked Macauley too. Despite the title, there isn't a single instance of magical shenanigans in the film; instead, it's a Hindi-speaking imitation of Home Alone, in which a disturbingly precocious youngster is left locked in his house with a pair of dastardly but bumbling burglars on whom he wreaks a series of spiteful and wholly predictable pranks.

The critics have almost entirely panned this movie, viciously so, which is mystifying. It's nowhere near as bad as some of the absolute stinkers that have recently been lauded over here, such as Rock On!! and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Atrocious and ludicrously pretentious grown-up films such as those were feted as proof of India's maturing cinema, while an innocuous childrens' movie like this is widely denounced as the worst thing to have emerged from India since the bubonic plague. Even the ten-year-old star, Zain Khan, got a hammering – which is just plain nasty and mean.

Set in an English country house where Hari has to safeguard a top-secret microchip that his dad has developed for the Indian Army, it's a humdrum children's film guaranteed to make most adults doze. But it had the kiddies in my theatre giggling more than enough. It even elicited the odd chuckle from me as Hari outwits his idiotic foes (Vijay Raaz and Saurabh Shukla), who are actually funnier than the crooks in Home Alone, camping up their performances to ridiculous Bollywood heights. Puerile as it was, I found watching the greasy, obese and dreadlocked Shukla making faces worthy of a Carry On film whenever Hari thwarts him rather amusing. It seems that silly-looking fat people slipping up on marbles and sliding around in manure provides an easy laugh in every culture.

But what really kept me awake was the sight of Hari's mum, the green-eyed and silky-haired former Bollwood icon, Sarika. She first made her first film appearance as a baby in the 1960s; now, in her forties, she's the yummiest mummy in Indian cinema, oozing effortless sex appeal without resorting to the pouts and girly inanities of today's starlets. She's also very convincing as a frantic mum who undergoes a parallel adventure as she struggles to get back to Hari, having realised that she left him behind after she departed on her family holiday.

This film is just cutesy, empty-headed candyfloss for the soul. The songs are catchy, the performances are solid, and the rapport between Hari and his mum is quite touching. There's no originality in it whatsoever, but since when has Bollywood been original? Some of India's greatest movies (including Sholay, one of India's all-time best) have been imitations of foreign ones. Hari Puttar isn't in their league but it's decent enough and certainly not as bad as it's been made out to be.

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